Marbury to miss out on MVP honor

Stephon Marbury of the Beijing Ducks celebrates after the Game 4 of the CBA Finals against the Guangdong Southern Tigers at the MasterCard Center in Beijing, March 28, 2012. [Photo by Cui Meng / China Daily]

Stephon Marbury, the guiding force behind the Beijing Ducks' journey to the CBA finals, cannot be named the MVP.

Beijing is one win away from its first championship title.

As an American, Marbury does not qualify for the honor, the Chinese Basketball Association confirmed yesterday.

The CBA regulations state that MVP should only be granted to the best local players from the championship-winning team. That means the 35-year-old Marbury, the best player in the league and the spiritual leader of the Ducks who contributed an average of 32 points and six assists in the four games in the best-of-seven finals, will miss out on the honor.

"It's written in our league's manual and won't be changed for a single player," said Bai Xilin, director of the association.

"If the public have some better ideas, we welcome them to propose and we can discuss them in future," Bai said.

According to the CBA's regulations, MVP of the finals should be elected from the top three Chinese players of the winning team depending on their average scores.

So far Beijing's 19-year-old forward Zhai Xiaochuan is leading the Chinese players with 11.25 points on average. Taiwanese point guard Lee Hsueh Lin is next with an average of 9.85 points.

The Beijing Ducks are 3-1 up against the defending champion Guangdong South China Tigers.